There are so many details to consider when planning your wedding.  One that many people undervalue is where to get ready for your wedding.  The moments that happen here are so important to the story of your wedding day… some of those last quiet moments getting ready with your mom, toasting mimosas with your girls, transforming from your everyday look into a bride.  This is the place your dad might see you for the very first time on your wedding day.  The spot where you’ll take that glamorous bridal shot seeing your reflection in a mirror for the very first time.  The place we will photograph so many of those details you spent the last several months hand-picking that will add up to make your wedding day perfectly YOU.

So how can you ensure that the pictures of these moments are the most flattering and truly capture the magic of your big day?

1. LIGHT
One of the things that defines our images is our strategic use of light to make our couples look their absolute best.  So it should come as no surprise that the first (and most important) thing we recommend looking for in a getting ready space is natural light!  Look for as many (and the biggest!) windows you can find.  There’s no substitute for soft, flattering, natural light… don’t underestimate the impact this small tip will make on your photographs!  (Your makeup artists will appreciate the light, too!)

2. CLUTTER FREE
This seems like it should go without saying, but try to find the cleanest, least cluttered space possible to get ready for your wedding.  If there are pictures on the walls, extra furniture, any kind of papers or little knick knacks stacked up… you can bet money on us moving all of that!  Avoiding distractions from ornate wallpaper to large art will ensure that the focus of the pictures is on the people, moments, and emotions of the day and not on the background.  We will help ensure luggage, food wrappers, and any other clutter that is a natural product of your bridal party sharing one space all day doesn’t make its way into your pictures.  You just find a space with good bones!  (Bonus points if it has white or neutral colored walls to reflect clean, color-free light back onto your skin to easily maintain true to color skin tones!)

3. GO BIG
Remember, a hotel room that looks big with nothing in it is going to get CRAZY cramped once you put your bridal party, parents, hair and makeup artists, videographers, and photographers in there with you.  If you’re planning to get ready at a hotel, do yourself a favor and upgrade to the suite.  It will make world of difference!  If you want to get a bit more creative, consider renting an airbnb – you have tons of gorgeous, elegant options to ensure your pre-ceremony photos are stunning.

4. DON’T FORGET THE MEN
One of the best things you can do when planning where you’ll be getting ready is to find a location where you and your fiancé can get ready on the same property.  This will save you time and result in more pictures since we won’t have to take precious photography time driving from one place to another.  Plus, it builds in a bit of extra time in your timeline to keep your day stress free and fun!

Now that you know how to decide where to get ready for your wedding, where do you start actually finding a place like this?  Start with your venue!  Some of our favorite local venues have on-site getting ready suites that work beautifully for photographs.  Try The Transept, French House, The View, Pinecroft at Crosley Estate, The Monastery, Greenacres, or The Cincinnati Club!  If you’ve already selected a venue and they don’t have an on-site space that works well for getting ready, there are many gorgeous hotels that provide beautiful backdrops for your special wedding day moments.  Start with Lytle Park Hotel, Hotel Covington, Hilton Netherlands Plaza, or Renaissance Cincinnati.  You may be able to use your home, parents’ home, or a friends’ home if any of the spaces meet the above criteria!

We hope this was helpful!  Want more wedding tips?  Get our advice on whether or not to have a first look or what to wear for your engagement pictures!

Need a wedding photographer?  Reach out to see if we are available on your date!

One of the first decisions you’ll need to make when planning your wedding is where your big day will take place. But with so many options to consider, it can get overwhelming trying to figure out how to choose a wedding venue! Inside or outside? Church or garden? Big or small? Here’s our best advice on how to choose a wedding venue as practically as possible!

1. Consider Hiring a Wedding Planner

A good planner will help you allocate your budget to get the most bang for your buck!  They can save you a ton of time because they already know how much local venues cost (and which ones will take the best care of you!) and will be able to help you find the best fit for your day depending on your vision, size of your guest list, and budget. Too often we see couples book their dream venue before they set a budget, only to find they run out of money to afford other must-haves on their list. Ask a planner to help you determine a short list of venues to tour. Consider off season dates (like winter if you’re in the midwest like us!) if you’re trying to stretch your budget – many venues offer discounted rates outside of peak wedding season!

2. Weather

This is an obvious concern for most couples when choosing a wedding venue. Depending on what time of year you are getting married, you could be battling heat, rain, snow, cold, wind… you name it! For this reason, if you have your heart set on an outdoor ceremony, we always recommend selecting a venue with a backup option. In the event you need to move your wedding indoors, you’ll want to make sure your venue has a tent or indoor location you would be satisfied with if you had to change plans at the last minute. Also worth noting – If you’re the type of person who will be super stressed out making a last minute change to your plan, an outdoor ceremony may not be the best fit!

3. Consider Your Guest Experience

You want your day to feel cohesive, so consider what colors, aesthetic, and overall vibe feels most true to you when selecting a venue.  The venue will be the backdrop for most of the special moments on your wedding day, and it will be where your guests get to celebrate your love.  If you have a lot of out of town guests, consider venues near hotels or incorporate a shuttle service into your plans. Make sure you choose a wedding venue that will comfortably fit your guests for each portion of your celebration, from cocktail hour to dinner service to dance floor space.

4. Will this be a religious ceremony?

Many couples decide to marry in a church, whether it is their home parish or another place of worship. Others decide to bring their pastor to a different venue to lead a faith-centered ceremony outside of the church. Consider your faith and how drawn you are to tradition to decide on the best fit for you. If you do decide to tie the knot in a church, familiarize yourself with the restrictions you’ll need to follow, as most churches have policies in place to limit distractions during the service.  You’ll also want to consider reception venues in relatively close proximity to your church if you’d like to avoid a long commute from place to place in the middle of your celebration.

5. Be Authentically YOU

From Pinterest to social media, it’s easy to become distracted by current trends or to fall in love with another wedding you see pictures of.  But your wedding day isn’t about them – it’s about YOU.  Pretty much every tradition on a wedding day is optional, so how do you choose which ones to take and which ones to leave?  Do what feels good to you and your future spouse!  In the end, your wedding day is about your marriage and your promise to each other – everything else is just extra sugar on top.

6. Consider an All In One Venue

Still can’t decide how to choose your wedding venue? If you’re on the fence, look for an all-in-one venue where you have gorgeous indoor and outdoor options. This eliminates the need for transportation to multiple locations and allows you to easily make backup plans for outdoor portions of your event.

In the end, listen to your heart! If you love the tradition of getting married in a church, do it. If you swoon over the architecture and elegance of an ornate ballroom, make it happen. If your dream is to have an outdoor wedding of any kind, whether it’s an intimate ceremony in the mountains, a laid back beach wedding, or a huge gathering of all your friends and family in a beautiful garden, do it! Just work with your photographer and wedding planner to have a backup plan in place to eliminate stress on your big day.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. From wondering if you should have a first look to trying to decide where to get ready on your big day, wedding planning requires you to consider a million tiny details. The months leading up to saying “I do” should be spent making memories with your best friend and enjoying the process, not Googling for hours on end. If this post was helpful, check out our best tips on how to get great portraits with your family on your wedding day or even grab a list of our favorite Cincinnati wedding venues here!

Ready to book your photographer? Reach out to chat more about our availability to photograph your wedding day!

 

Wedding first looks can be a polarizing topic.  Tradition says it’s good luck to wait to see each other until the bride walks down the aisle, but wedding vendors often lobby for couples to plan a private moment to see each other earlier in the day.  While there are some definitely timeline benefits to seeing each other before your ceremony, we typically have about 60% of our couples choose a first look on their wedding day and 40% go the more traditional route. So know that either option will work just fine in most scenarios! Our heart is to help you make the best decision for YOUR wedding day based on what matters most to you two.

If you don’t know what a “first look” is, it simply means setting an intentional time for the bride and groom to see each other prior to the ceremony.  In contrast, the more traditional approach is for the couple to avoid seeing each other until the moment the bride walks down the aisle to her groom.  Here are some of the big things we encourage couples who are planning a wedding to consider before deciding when to see each other for the first time on your wedding day:

1. What time is your ceremony?

This is the very first question we ask when couples tell us they want to wait to see each other until the ceremony.  If you have your ceremony set early enough that there will be 90 minutes of sunlight available once you’re officially married, waiting to see each other can work out beautifully!  This will give you time to squeeze in formal family pictures, pictures of you and your new spouse, and a few snaps of your whole bridal party together.  If you are getting married right at sunset or close to it, consider whether or not you will be OK with having all of the pictures of you two together on your wedding day taken inside or with artificial lighting.  Are those the types of images you are drawn to?  Or will you be disappointed to miss out on that golden hour glow and the life that natural light brings to photos?  If you have your heart set on waiting to see each other but don’t want all of your portraits as husband and wife taken after dark, consider that when setting times with your venue and schedule your ceremony early enough to have time for photos outdoors before sunset!

2. Are you a morning person?

Having a first look will require you to start your day earlier.  You’ll need to have hair and make up completed soon enough to give you time to be fully ready a few hours prior to your ceremony time.  If you want to sleep in and start your day a little slower, a first look on your wedding day may not be for you.

3. Will you hate to miss your party?

If it’s important to you to maximize the time you have to mingle with your guests and get on the dance floor, we would recommend opting for a first look.  When you see each other before the ceremony it enables your photographer to knock out the vast majority of your pictures in advance so you can get to your party as soon as possible.  (It also makes it a lot more likely we can sneak away for a few minutes to capture your empty reception space all set up before your guests arrive, if that’s important to you.). Plus, as a bonus, you get to see lots more of your new husband or wife on your wedding day!

4. Do you anticipate lots of nerves on your big day?

For couples who expect to feel anxious or don’t like being the center of attention, a first look can really ease their nerves.  Having a private moment just the two of you before the day officially “starts” can calm any anxiety and refocus you on what the day is all about… getting married to the love of your life!  It also allows you to have a more intimate reaction without the pressure of everyone watching.  If it’s important to you to share the joy and emotion of the “first look” with everyone at your wedding as part of the ceremony, you may want to wait to see each other!  Especially if you opt to wait until the wedding ceremony, we highly encourage exchanging letters earlier in the day to give you a chance to say something special to your fiancé without actually seeing each other.

5. How important are wedding photographs to you?

The simple reality is when you share a first look, the result is a less rushed and less condensed timeline.  This means you will maximize the time you have with your photographer and get more pictures back from your big day.  Not to mention a timeline with a bit of wiggle room gives you a LOT more flexibility to get important pictures in if you have a day with less than cooperative weather (or in the event any aspect of your wedding day is running behind schedule).  Often our couples who do a first look are able to get portraits done prior to the ceremony and also sneak out for a few pictures at sunset, which enables them to get a wider variety of backdrops and more pictures overall.

6. Does one of you feel strongly about a first look already?

Whether your partner is passionate about honoring tradition and waiting to see each other during the ceremony or they are set on having a first look on your wedding day, this is one of the most important factors to consider. Even though a first look gives you more time for pictures and more time together, sometimes it’s still the right call to wait if only for the simple reason that it’s important to your future spouse.  Your wedding day is about celebrating your love, and that looks a little different for each couple’s unique story!

In the end, this is such a personal decision.  If you are on the fence, hopefully determining the answers to these five questions will clarify the best choice for your unique wedding day!

 

Decisions, decisions, decisions. From wondering if you should have a first look to trying to decide where to get ready on your big day, wedding planning requires you to consider a million tiny details. The months leading up to saying “I do” should be spent making memories with your best friend and enjoying the process, not Googling for hours on end. If this post was helpful, check out our best tips on how to choose your wedding venue or even grab a list of our favorite Cincinnati wedding venues here!

Ready to book your photographer? Reach out to chat more about our availability to photograph your wedding day!